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oung leaders gathering for a summit in Bangkok have voiced their concern over pressing global problems from migration to terrorist attacks, with vibrant discussion on identifying root causes and taking action to resolve the problems.

Addressing how young people can play a role in protecting migrants'€™ rights during the greatest period of migration in the last 60 years, young delegates to the One Young World Summit from Thailand, Eritrea, Germany, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Brazil discussed how their respective nations had worked to resolve the issue.

Nobel Peace Prize nominee Father Mussie Zerai gave an introductory keynote on his one-man emergency hotline for refugees.

Nineteen-year-old Kamolnan Chearavanont, the cofounder of Thailand'€™s Voices '€” an advocacy group for stateless people '€” gave an emotional speech that prompted the summit committee later in the day to announce the inclusion of representatives of the stateless at the next summit in Ottawa.

'€œEach of us here represents a nation. Think of the 10 million stateless people who don'€™t have their own,'€ Chearavanont said, urging all participants to pressure their own governments to solve issues involving the stateless, who were vulnerable to abuse and crime.

An online vote in the wake of the session showed that nearly all of the participants agreed that wealthier governments should take responsibility for migrants and welcome homeless strangers.

However, the majority of the participants at the summit, which kicked off on Thursday, also believed that the waves of migrants would incite security issues in destination countries.

One Young World is a global forum for young leaders aged between 18 and 30 cofounded by advertising professionals Kate Robertson and David Jones in 2009.

The annual summit this year gathered 1,300 delegates from 196 countries and was attended by luminaries such as former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus, music producer Sir Bob Geldof and CCTV news anchor and UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador for China James Chau.

In a special session on Thursday where Kofi Annan took questions from the young leaders, the Nobel Peace laureate addressed the recent Paris attacks and the threat of the Islamic State (IS) movement.

'€œThese issues cannot be resolved by force alone. There has to be an attempt to deal with the group force. That means taking serious steps to resolve conflict in Syria.

'€œUltimately the solution is political and I would hope if the regional and national powers can come together and work to defeat IS and settle the situation in the region. If we don'€™t do that it will get much worse,'€ he said.

'€œI hope Syria and the people involved in the conflict realize the killings are senseless and futile.'€

In his opening speech, Annan also addressed young people from around the globe to urge the government to take an active role on the upcoming 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) in Paris where the country leaders would attempt to reach a binding agreement on climate change.

The Call on COP campaign was activated on stage at the opening ceremony late on Wednesday by Annan and Geldof, the activist behind
Live Aid.

'€œThese are your issues, you are the ones who have to live with the consequences,'€ Annan told the young delegates.

'€œYou need to reach out to politicians, you have the capacity to do it. Make sure they know you are there.'€